Arrangement of information to allow three-dimensional navigation through information displays

ABSTRACT

A method of configuring information for display includes assigning continuum labels to pieces of information, or information units, accessible by a computer system. The continuum labels may be used in arranging the information units into ordered sequences, or continuum arrangements. Criteria for ordering of the information units within the continuum arrangement may include, for example, the level of detail of the subject matter of the information units or the degree to which the subject matter of an information unit is related to that of a reference information unit. Formation of continuum arrangements may be done by entering data into a data structure or rules database, or by a method of using a graphical user interface to establish sequences of icons representing information units. Forming continuum arrangements to configure information may allow display of the information in a form allowing rapid, convenient viewer access to desired pieces of information.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is related to the following copending U.S. PatentApplications, filed on even date herewith: “Arrangement of Informationfor Display Into a Continuum Ranging From Closely Related to DistantlyRelated to a Reference Piece of Information” by MacPhail, “InformationGrouping Configuration for Use With Diverse Display Devices” byMacPhail, “Establishment of Information Display Policy for DiverseDisplay Devices” by MacPhail, “Arrangement of Information for DisplayInto a Continuum According to Level of Detail” by MacPhail, “Arrangementof Information Into Linear Form for Display on Diverse Display Devices”by MacPhail, “Navigation Through Displayed Information Using MinimumDisplay Screen Area” by MacPhail, “Arrangement of Information to AllowThree-dimensional Navigation Through Information Displays withIndication of Intended Starting Point” by MacPhail, “Graphical Displayof Path Through Three-dimensional Organization of Information” byMacPhail, and “Method of Using a Graphical User Interface to ConfigureInformation for Display” by MacPhail.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates to information organization, and moreparticularly to arranging pieces of information into at least threecontinuum arrangements, where each continuum arrangement may beassociated with an axis in a three-dimensional representation. Themethod may be useful for multiple applications involving display ofinformation, including platform management in heterogeneous systems.

2. Description of the Related Art

The following descriptions and examples are not admitted to be prior artby virtue of their inclusion within this section.

Increasing capability of computers, coupled with a proliferation ofother information-based devices, including telephones, pagers, andpersonal digital assistants (PDA's), have contributed to continuallyincreasing amounts of available information. This large quantity ofinformation can lead to difficulties in finding specific information,and particularly in finding the information conveniently andefficiently.

As an example, it can be difficult for a viewer accessing a piece ofinformation to know how that information is related to other informationavailable from the same source. The source of information may be, e.g.,an application program or an Internet site (also called a “World WideWeb” or “web” site). In other words, it can be difficult to tell whatother information may be available, and how the information is intendedto be organized by its developer. Current approaches to providingguidance to a consumer or viewer of information, which may be used on,e.g., web sites or application displays, include tables of contents ororganizational trees. Such displays typically require a large amount ofscreen space, however, which may be particularly disadvantageous if theviewer is using a small-screen device such as a telephone or PDA. Othertechniques, such as dividing displayed information into separatedisplays accessible using, for example, folder tabs along the top of adisplay window, don't allow the viewer an overview of all of theavailable information at once.

Even if a consumer or viewer of information is aware of the intendedorganization of a collection of information, accessing a particulardesired piece of information can still be difficult because a limitednumber of specific navigation paths through the information collectionmay be provided. For example, information on a web site is typicallyarranged in a hierarchical structure in which “clicking” upon multiple“links” is required to reach a piece of information having the desiredspecificity or detail on the desired topic. This problem may be furtherexacerbated for a user of a small-display device, because only a smallportion of the information intended to appear on a display screen may beviewable on the screen of the small-display device at any one time. Suchlimitations of the navigation pathways established by a developer of anapplication or web site may also make it difficult to move from onedesired piece of information to another efficiently. For example, evenremembering and/or retracing a path taken through a collection ofinformation can present challenges. Although web browser programs ofteninclude a “history”, or listing of the most recent web pages visited,this history may be erased by accessing some web pages. Furthermore, theweb page names listed in the history may not provide a sufficientdescription of the pages' subject matter to convey a relationshipbetween the path taken and the overall organization scheme of theinformation. Such a relationship may be observable by comparing thehistory to the organization of the web site, but this may requireclicking back and forth between multiple web pages (thereby complicatingthe browser history further).

In view of the problems described above, it would be desirable todevelop a method by which a consumer of information could quicklyascertain the intended organization of a collection of information. Itwould further be desirable to allow the consumer to easily observe apath taken through the collection of information in the context of itsorganization. In some cases, a method of allowing the consumer toestablish criteria for organization of displayed information would bepreferable, so that desired pieces of information may be more quicklyaccessible.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The problems outlined above are in large part addressed by methodsdescribed herein of configuring information for display and displayinginformation. The methods of configuring information involve arrangingpieces of information, or information units, into ordered sequences, orcontinuum arrangements. Depending on the embodiment, an information unitmay take various forms, including, for example, a value of a system ornetwork variable being monitored by a system administrator for acomputer system, an address (also called a Universal Resource Locator,or URL) of a web page provided by a web search application, or a portionof the material included in a web page. Criteria for ordering of theinformation units may include the level of detail of the subject matterof the information units, the degree to which the subject matter of aninformation unit is related to that of a reference information unit,and/or other criteria, which may be defined by either the consumer orthe organizer of the information.

The arrangement of information units into one or more continuumarrangements typically involves assigning one or more continuum tags, orlabels, to each information unit. Such labels are a form of “meta-data”,or data about data. In particular, a label preferably corresponds to aparticular attribute of the data, and the value of that attribute. Thelabel is linked to the corresponding piece of data (or information unitas described herein). In a preferred embodiment, this linking isimplemented by relating the label to a reference or pointer to theinformation unit, where the relating is done using some sort of datastructure. “Data structure” as used herein refers to a collection ofpieces of data (which may be meta-data) and any relationships betweenthe pieces of data. One such data structure may be a rules databasewhich contains rules, or policy, for assigning the continuum labels toinformation units. “Policy” as used herein refers to one or more rulesestablished in advance of a particular situation or event to govern theresponse of a computer system to that event.

Establishing policy for arranging information units into continuumarrangements may be particularly useful in embodiments for whichconfiguration of ad hoc information is desired. Ad hoc informationrefers to information generated or organized in response to a particularevent or request, as opposed to static information which is alwayspresented in the same form. Examples of ad hoc information include analarm message generated in response to a failure detected in a monitoredsystem, as might occur in a system administration application, or a listof URL's provided by a search engine in response to specific searchcriteria given by a user. Ad hoc information units may therefore notexist in advance of a triggering event which gives rise to the ad hocinformation. Setting policy for collection of such information units andassignment of labels to them after they are created therefore allowsestablishment of continuum arrangements even for ad hoc informationunits.

The assignment of continuum labels to establish a continuum arrangementof information units as described above may be done by directly enteringlabels into a data structure relating labels and information units, orinto a rules database containing policy for assignment of labels toinformation units. Alternatively, establishment of one or more continuumarrangements may be performed using a graphical user interface (GUI). Insuch an embodiment, icons representing information units may be movedusing a pointing device and arranged into sequences on a display screen.The information unit icons may be arranged with respect to an axis, pairof axes, or set of three axes configured on the display screen, therebyestablishing one-dimensional, two-dimensional or three-dimensionalconfigurations. In some embodiments, the sequences of information uniticons may also be formed without reference to an axis on the screen, ormultiple one- or two-dimensional sequences may be entered to form asingle three-dimensional configuration of information units. Theconfiguration of icons may be entered into the computer system using theGUI, and assignment of labels to corresponding information unitssubsequently performed by one or more programs executable on thecomputer system, thereby establishing a configuration of the actualinformation units.

Configuration of information units for display using the methodsdescribed above may allow the information units to be displayed in aform which allows rapid, convenient viewer access to desired pieces ofinformation. For example, in a method of displaying informationcontemplated herein, a set of three axes is configured on a viewer'sdisplay screen. Selectable regions are configured in the vicinity of theset of axes, where each selectable region corresponds to an informationunit. The position of the selectable region corresponding to aninformation unit with respect to the set of axes is determined by a setof coordinates proportional to values of x-axis, y-axis and z-axiscontinuum attributes (corresponding to x-axis, y-axis and z-axiscontinuum labels). Selection of one of the selectable regions (by usinga pointing device, for example) causes the corresponding informationunit to be displayed on the display screen. The axes and selectableregions are preferably retained on a portion of the display screenalongside the displayed information unit, and a current position iconillustrating the position of the selectable region corresponding to thedisplayed information unit is preferably displayed.

In some embodiments, other icons may be displayed in the vicinity of theset of axes, such as an intended starting point icon showing thestarting point intended by the developer or organizer of the collectionof information for navigating through the information. Other icons mayalso include a user starting point icon, showing the positioncorresponding to the information unit through which a viewer actuallyenters the collection of information, and an interim point icon showingthe position corresponding to an information unit previously displayed.A path between a user starting point icon and a current position iconmay also be displayed. Furthermore, a visible indication may be givenwhen a pointer displayed on the screen is moved across one of theselectable regions and/or one of the axes. The visible indication maybe, for example, a word descriptive of the subject matter of theinformation unit corresponding to an underlying selectable region, or aword descriptive of the criterion by which information units arearranged along an axis.

The methods described above for configuring and displayingcomputer-based information are believed to provide multiple advantagesto a consumer of the information. For example, in some embodiments theconsumer may establish one or more continuum arrangements of informationunits, so that the information is organized in a way that makes sense tothe consumer. The consumer would therefore know how the information isorganized, allowing more rapid access to a desired piece of information,or information unit. The method of using a GUI to form an arrangement ofinformation unit icons may provide a particularly simple, intuitive wayof configuring information units.

Even in embodiments for which the information is not configured by theconsumer, use of the above-described method for displaying informationmay allow rapid observation by a viewer of the intended organization ofa collection of information. For example, the use of visible indicatorswhich identify information units corresponding to selectable regionsunderlying a pointer is believed to allow the content and organizationof a three-dimensional configuration of information units to beefficiently ascertained. The criteria used in forming such athree-dimensional configuration may also be observed in embodiments forwhich a visible indicator characterizing the criteria for organizationof information along an axis is displayed when a pointer is positionedover the axis. Display of a current position icon may allow arelationship between the currently displayed information unit and theorganization of the collection of information to be readily ascertained,and display of other icons and/or a path between positions of selectableregions previously selected may provide further understanding of theviewed information in the context of the overall collection ofinformation.

In addition to allowing improved knowledge of the intended organizationof a collection of information, the method of displaying information mayalso greatly enhance the ability of a viewer to rapidly-select a desiredpiece of information, and to readily “jump” from one piece ofinformation to another. Because any of the information units areavailable for selection by selecting the corresponding selectable regionarranged about the displayed set of axes, the viewer is freed fromfollowing a preset path between information units, as is often requiredin applications or web sites having a hierarchical structure. Theabove-described methods are therefore believed to allow a significantreduction in the time required for a viewer to identify and access adesired piece of information.

The methods described herein are believed to be useful in manysituations involving display of information. One such situation mayinvolve platform management. “Platform management” generally refers toensuring the effective operation of application programs, systems, ornetworks on one or more “platforms,” where a platform refers to aspecific hardware configuration and/or operating system. Platformmanagement may be particularly challenging in systems or networksincluding multiple heterogeneous platforms. Such systems may also bereferred to by other terms, such as “multiple heterogeneous systems,”and management of them may also be called, for example, “cross-platformmanagement.” Platform management of a multiple heterogeneous system mayoften involve remote management of at least some parts of the system,and failure detection and reporting become increasingly important withincreased system complexity. As an example of application of the methodsdescribed herein to platform management, a system administrator for acomputer system may arrange multiple system and network quantities to bemonitored into one or more continuum arrangements. The value of such asystem or network quantity at a given time may correspond to aninformation unit in such an embodiment. Various criteria could be usedfor establishing continuum arrangements in this case, such as relevanceof the information unit to the health of a particular applicationprogram or likelihood of the information unit to indicate a failurewithin the system. Innumerable other types of information collections,such as results of an Internet search, web pages collected in a website, collections of electronic mail messages or values of some quantityof interest (e.g., a stock price) as a function of time, to name a few,may also be configured and displayed using these methods.

It is noted that the methods described herein may be advantageouslycombined with the methods of grouping information for display andsetting display preferences described in related application“Establishment of Information Display Policy for Diverse DisplayDevices” by MacPhail, filed on even date herewith, and herebyincorporated by reference as if set forth herein. This applicationincludes methods of setting policy for display of information units,including establishing groups of information units and prioritysequences of information units. This setting of display policy may beparticularly advantageous for viewing information on a small-displaydevice, so that the information most important to the viewer may bequickly and efficiently forwarded to the display device. As an example,in some embodiments of the methods described herein, the informationunits may be larger than will fit on the display screen of asmall-display device such as a telephone or PDA. This could be the caseif an information unit is a web page, for example. In such anembodiment, the information units could be broken down into smallersub-units, and the sub-units could be configured for display by settingdisplay policy as described in the above-mentioned related application.

In addition to the methods described above, a computer-usable carriermedium is contemplated herein. The carrier medium may be a storagemedium, such as a magnetic or optical disk, a magnetic tape, or amemory. In addition, the carrier medium may be a transmission medium,such as a wire, cable, or wireless transmission path along which theprogram instructions are transmitted, or a signal carrying the programinstructions along such a wire, cable or wireless transmission path. Insome embodiments, the carrier medium contains program instructionsexecutable on a computer system for implementation of the methodsdescribed above, while in other embodiments the carrier medium maycontain a data structure or rules database containing a continuumarrangement of information units or policy for forming such a continuumarrangement.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent uponreading the following detailed description and upon reference to theaccompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a computersystem and display device which may be used to implement the methodsdescribed herein;

FIG. 2 illustrates the content of exemplary data structures and/or rulesdatabases which may be included on a carrier medium associated with thecomputer system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 illustrates use of a graphical user interface for configurationof information units into continuum arrangements for display;

FIG. 4 illustrates a display screen with a displayed information unitand a three-dimensional navigation tool;

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating a method of configuringinformation for display;

FIG. 6 includes flow diagrams illustrating methods for using a graphicaluser interface to configure information for display; and

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram illustrating a method of displaying informationusing a navigation tool.

While the invention is susceptible to various modifications andalternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way ofexample in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. Itshould be understood, however, that the drawings and detaileddescription thereto are not intended to limit the invention to theparticular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is tocover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within thespirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appendedclaims.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

A block diagram illustrating an exemplary embodiment of a computersystem which may be used to implement the methods described herein isshown in FIG. 1. Computer system 10 includes processor 12, which iscoupled to storage medium 14 and display controller 24. Storage medium14 may take many forms, such as volatile or nonvolatile memory, amagnetic disk such as a hard drive or floppy disk, an optical disk,and/or a magnetic tape. Storage medium 14 may include programinstructions 16, data structure 20, and/or rules database 22 (whichcould also be considered a type of data structure), described in moredetail below. Display controller 24 configures data for display on adisplay device such as display device 26, and may provide an interfacebetween computer system 10 and display device 26. Display device 26 ispreferably a display screen, and may be formed within various devices,such as a monitor, laptop computer, telephone, pager or PDA. Such adisplay screen may be formed using various technologies, includingliquid crystal display (LCD) technology, cathode ray tube (CRT)technology or projection technologies. Furthermore, display device 26may be a display screen having one of many different sizes. Displaycontroller 24 is adapted to send an appropriate amount of data todisplay device 26, an amount which may vary depending on the size of thedisplay.

In the embodiment of FIG. 1, data structure 20 is a collection ofinterrelated data stored in storage medium 14. As described furtherbelow in connection with FIG. 2, data structure 20 may include multiplepieces of data (and/or meta-data) and the relationships between thepieces of data. In particular, data describing continuum arrangements ofinformation units accessible using computer system 10 may be included indata structure 20. “Accessible using a computer system” or “accessibleby a computer system” as used herein refers to information units whichmay be found stored on the computer system or a network associated withthe system, or created using the computer system. Such continuumarrangements may additionally or alternatively be stored within rulesdatabase 22. In the embodiment of FIG. 1, rules database 22 is adatabase in which rules are stored which define policy for theconfiguration of information units for display. An example of such arule could be: “space available on disk C constitutes more detailedinformation than does space available throughout the network” or “therate of writes to database B measured 5 minutes before failure ofapplication A is the reference information unit for forming continuumarrangement 2.” Rules database 22 may be accessed by a program such ascontrol program 18, which monitors and detects events which may triggera display of information units. Such an event might be, for example, amessage from an application program or operating system of a failure, oran instruction from a user to display a particular piece of information.When a display of information units is indicated, control program 18 mayaccess the rules database to determine the rules applicable to theparticular information unit being displayed, and collect the informationneeded by display controller 24 to display according to thepre-established policy. This collecting of information may involve thecreation of one or more data structures similar to data structure 20,which may be forwarded to display controller 24 so that the appropriateinformation units may be sent to display device 26. Such formation ofdata structures dynamically at such time as they are needed is believedto advantageously allow display policy to be predetermined for evenad-hoc information, which may not exist prior to the time at which itsdisplay is required.

As used in the methods described herein, display controller 24 may belinked to storage medium 14. This linkage allows display controller 24to take into account display policy information which may be included onstorage medium 14 when configuring data to forward to display device 26.Display controller 24 and display device 26 are connected by carriermedium 30, in this case a transmission medium. Carrier medium 30 maytherefore include a wire, cable, or wireless transmission path, or asignal traveling along such a wire, cable or wireless path. Inembodiments for which display device 26 is remotely located with respectto computer system 10, carrier medium 30 may contain both “wired” andwireless portions. Computer system 10 may be connected to at least oneinput device 28 through which a user may enter information into thecomputer. Input device 28 may be a device used for manual entry ofinformation, such as a keyboard or pointing device, or a device such asa disk drive or tape drive for receiving stored information. In someembodiments, a user may also input information using display device 26,using a transmission medium similar to carrier medium 30.

It is noted that a computer system suitable for the methods describedherein may include other components not explicitly shown. For example,other input/output devices and/or interfaces may be included.Furthermore, in the block diagram of FIG. 1 the blocks are intended torepresent functionality rather than specific structure. Implementationof the represented system using circuitry and/or software could involvecombination of multiple blocks into a single circuit or program, orcombination of multiple circuits or programs to realize the function ofa block. For example, storage medium 14 may include memory associatedwith various elements, including processor 12 and display controller 24.Furthermore, the elements within computer system 10 may be related usingvarious levels of integration. For example, storage medium 14, processor12, and display controller 24 may be integrated onto a single board or asingle chip, or, alternatively, may not be within the same case. Storagemedium 14, for example, may be external to the case of computer system10, particularly in embodiments for which it is a disk or tape.

Exemplary embodiments of contents of a data structure such as datastructure 20 are illustrated in FIG. 2. The table of FIG. 2a includesdata which may be included in a data structure corresponding to aparticular information unit. Such a data structure may be employed, forexample, when an object-oriented approach is used to implement themethods described herein. In such an approach, each information unit maybe considered an “object”. The data of FIG. 2a may be used to defineattributes of such an object. In the embodiment of FIG. 2a, each of thelabels 32 assigned to an information unit corresponds to an attribute 34and a value 36 of that attribute. For example, the value of generallevel of detail attribute 38, assigned the label “gendetail” in theembodiment of FIG. 2a, is a general indicator such as “high” or “low”.(Quotation marks are used in FIG. 2 to denote actual exemplary values,while entries not in quotation marks are descriptions of a suitablevalue.) Both “gendetail” and “specdetail” of FIG. 2a may be consideredcontinuum labels as used herein, in that they are associated withattribute values which indicate a position in a continuum of informationunits. “Contname” label 40 corresponds to continuum name attribute 42and is used to include the information unit described by the datastructure in the “North American Birds” continuum. The information unitdescribed by the attributes and values of FIG. 2a is referenced by thevalue of reference/pointer attribute 43, where the value is the objecthandle of the information unit.

An object handle as used in an object-oriented programming approach maybe considered a name (typically an alphanumeric character, word, orphrase) used to reference the object. Operations performed with respectto the object are described by a programmer in terms of the objecthandle. The object handle is associated with the actual object using,e.g., some sort of data structure. The object handle may be stored in acompletely different storage location than that used to store the actualobject, however. As noted above, the table of FIG. 2a includesinformation in a data structure associated with an information unitwithin the continuum “North American Birds”. Other information units maybe included within this continuum by including label 40 in other datastructures similar to that illustrated by FIG. 2a, where the other datastructures correspond to and reference these other information units. Inthe embodiment of FIG. 2a, information units within the continuum “NorthAmerican Birds” are assigned values of general and specific level ofdetail attributes, according to the level of detail of the subjectmatter of the information unit. For example, a piece of informationdescribing North American eagles in general might be assigned a lowerlevel of detail than an information unit describing feeding habits ofred-winged blackbirds.

A continuum of information units as used herein may be considered anembodiment of a group of information units. In particular, a groupsubstantially larger can be displayed on a display screen and may beconsidered to contain an effectively infinite stream of informationunits (with respect to the capacity of the display), and may be arrangedas a continuum of information. In some embodiments, the informationunits forming the continuum may be chosen with input from the viewer ofthe information units. In particular, the content of the continuum maybe closely-related, or tightly-bound, information on a topic of interestto the viewer. A data structure similar to that of FIG. 2a may also beused to establish attributes for a continuum of information units. Suchattributes may include, e.g., preferred. page breaks to be used whensending information from the continuum to a display, or a position ofthe continuum in a priority sequence of multiple continua.

Another example of the content of a data structure for an informationunit is shown in FIG. 2b. In this embodiment, multiple continuum labels,in this case “x-axis”, “y-axis” and “z-axis”, are assigned to theinformation unit corresponding to the data structure. The embodiment ofFIG. 2b may be used to establish a three-dimensional configuration ofinformation units, wherein the continuum arrangements associated withthe “x-axis”, “y-axis” and “z-axis” continuum labels may be associatedwith x-, y- and z-axes, respectively, in a three-dimensionalrepresentation. In FIG. 2b, the attributes corresponding to thecontinuum labels might be suitable in configuring information for anInternet search application. Accordingly, attribute 44 corresponding tothe “x-axis” continuum label reflects the percentage confidence that theinformation unit matches search terms input by a user of a searchengine. In this embodiment, the x-axis continuum is formed based oninput from a consumer (the search terms), and may therefore containinformation units having tightly-bound subject matter, as discussedabove.

Attribute 46 associated with the y-axis continuum label in theembodiment of FIG. 2b is the level of detail of the information unit ascompared to a reference information unit. The reference information unitprovides a reference with which other information units in a continuummay be compared to assess quantities such as level of detail orrelatedness of the subject matter of one information unit with respectto another. In some embodiments, reference information units areestablished using input from a consumer of the information. For example,reference information units used in the embodiment of FIG. 2b could beestablished from those closest in subject matter to Internet searchterms entered by a consumer.

A reference information unit is also used in attribute 48 correspondingto the z-axis continuum label, where the value of this attributeindicates the relatedness of the subject matter of the information unitto that of a reference information unit. The attributes corresponding tothe y-axis and z-axis continuum labels are not necessarily establishedwith respect to the same reference information unit, as illustrated bythe assignment of separate pointers, labeled “yrefunit” and “zrefunit”,to the reference units associated with the y-axis and z-axis continuumlabels, respectively. The value of attribute 46 is an indicator of thelevel of detail of the information unit with respect to the appropriatereference information unit. In an embodiment, a positive number may beused for an information unit having subject matter with a higher levelof detail than that of the reference unit (more specific subjectmatter), while a negative number is used for an information unit havingless detailed (more general) subject matter. The value of attribute 48is an indicator of the relatedness of the information unit with respectto a reference information unit. In an embodiment, a smaller number maybe used to indicate that the subject matter of the information unit ismore closely related to that of the reference information unit, and alarger number to indicate less related subject matter. Other scalescould be used to assign values to attributes 46 and 48, however, andother indicators, such as letters, capable of being sequenced could alsobe used.

Another label assigned to the information unit characterized by the dataof FIG. 2b is “startpt” label 50. This label corresponds to an attributecharacterizing whether the information unit is the intended startingpoint of a collection of information units to which it belongs. Thevalue of this attribute may be used in determining a position at whichto display an intended starting point icon within a representation on adisplay screen of the collection of information. Such representations ofinformation on a display screen are discussed further with reference toFIG. 4 below.

The content and length of an information unit, such as those to whichthe attributes in FIG. 2 correspond, may vary significantly depending onthe application for which information is configured for display. Forexample, an information unit may include a number representing aquantity such as available disk space, an alphanumeric Internet siteaddress, alphanumeric words and/or phrases displayed on a web page, oran entire electronic mail message or other document. As noted above inthe Summary of the Invention section, the methods described herein ofconfiguring information for display and displaying information may becombined with methods of setting information display preferences asdescribed in related application “Establishment of Information DisplayPolicy for Diverse Display Devices” by MacPhail. Display preferenceswhich may, for example, be advantageous in viewing information onsmall-display devices may include priority sequences, groupingarrangements, and/or preferred positions of information units on adisplay screen. Label assignments used to establish such preferences,described further in the above-mentioned related application, may beincluded in some embodiments with data such as that of FIG. 2establishing continuum arrangements. In other embodiments for whichinformation units are relatively large, an information unit may bedivided into sub-units, and data structures similar to those of FIG. 2may be used to establish display preferences for the sub-units.

The data structures of FIG. 2 are merely exemplary, and these datastructures, as well as all data structures described herein, may beimplemented in various configurations. For example, attributes of morethan one information unit or continuum arrangement could be combined inone data structure in some embodiments, or continuum arrangementattributes and information unit attributes could be combined within adata structure. In other embodiments, different criteria for arranginginformation units within a continuum arrangement may be used. Forexample, information units could be arranged into a continuumarrangement in chronological order. Alternatively or in addition to theobject-oriented approach suggested by the examples of FIG. 2, other datastructure forms may be used. For example, a look-up table includingmultiple information units and the associated continuum labels could beformed.

The particular method by which continuum arrangements of informationunits are formed may vary, and the method may depend on whether theinformation units form static information or ad hoc information. For adhoc information, a continuum arrangement typically cannot be formed byassigning continuum labels to existing information units, because atleast some of the information units may not exist in advance of atriggering event. Possible triggering events may include, for example,detection of a failure by an application program monitoring theperformance of a system (such as a computer system or network) orexecution of an Internet search program to generate search results.Continuum arrangements for ad hoc information may therefore be formed bysetting policy in advance, where the policy provides rules for formingcontinuum arrangements of information units after the information unitsare created. The data of FIG. 2b, for example, may be put into a datastructure by a control program such as control program 18 of FIG. 1. Thecontrol program may access policy stored in, for example, a rulesdatabase to obtain rules for forming such a data structure. In the caseof static information (the information regarding North American birds inFIG. 2a could be an example of static information contained on, e.g. aweb page), on the other hand, a continuum arrangement may be formed byrelating existing information units to continuum attributes. This couldbe done by, for example, entering data such as that of FIG. 2a into adata structure.

Another way in which continuum arrangements of information may be formedis illustrated in FIG. 3. Items configured on display screen 52 of FIG.3a are part of a GUI which may be used for arranging information units.These items include axis 54, pointer 56, information unit icons 62, 64,66 and 68, and entry button 60. In the embodiment of FIG. 3a,information unit icons 62, 64, 66 and 68 represent information unitswhich may be suitable for a system administration, or platformmanagement, application. The information unit icons may represent staticinformation units which exist at the time continuum arrangements areformed. In some cases, the information unit icons may also representpieces of ad hoc information, however. This may be done in case forwhich the information unit may be described, even if the value of theinformation unit is not yet established or is varying. For example, thesystem and network quantities represented by information unit icons 62,64, 66 and 68 may be specifically described, although their values at agiven time in the future are not known. An ordering of the informationunits may therefore be established, although the actual collection ofthe information may not be performed until such time as display of theinformation units is required.

Pointer 56 may be moved across the screen using a pointing device suchas a mouse or trackball, and used to “drag” the icons to differentpositions on the screen. Such dragging is typically done by moving thepointer to overlie the icon to be moved, depressing a button associatedwith the pointing device, keeping the button depressed while moving theicon with the pointer, and releasing the button to “drop” the icon atthe desired position. An organizer of information can therefore use theGUT illustrated in FIG. 3ato move information unit icons 62, 64, 66 and68 into a desired sequence 58 along axis 54, as shown in FIG. 3b. In theembodiment of FIG. 3, sequence 58 may be entered into a computer systemassociated with display screen 52 by using a pointing device to actuateentry button 60. Upon actuation of entry button 60 (e.g., by depressinga button associated with the pointing device while the pointer ispositioned over entry button 60), the relative positions of theinformation unit icons within sequence 58 are communicated to thecomputer system. These relative positions may be used to establishordering of the corresponding information units within a continuumarrangement. This ordering may be established, for example, by setting apolicy for assigning continuum labels to the information units. In thisway, the organizer of the information may establish continuumarrangements in a relatively simple, intuitive way, without needing todirectly assign labels or attributes to information units.

In the embodiment of FIG. 3b, the information unit icons are arrangedalong axis 54 with icon 66 representing information on the status ofapplication C followed by icon 62 representing information on the spaceavailable on disk A. Icon 62 is followed by icon 64 representinginformation on transaction rate B, and icon 68 representing informationon processor utilization, or usage, by application C. A criterion usedto arrive at this ordering might be, for example, importance of theinformation represented by icons 62, 64 and 68 to the status ofApplication C, represented by icon 66. In some embodiments, arrangementof information unit icons into a sequence might be done without thepresence of an axis such as axis 54 on the screen. Axis 54 may beadvantageous in establishing a direction and/or position reference forthe sequence, but in some embodiments relative positions of theinformation unit icons may also be established without an axis andsubsequently communicated to the computer system. Such arrangement ofinformation unit icons without using an axis may also be applicable tosome embodiments of the formation of two-dimensional andthree-dimensional sequences described further below.

Formation of a two-dimensional sequence of information unit icons usinga GUI is illustrated in FIG. 3c. An x-axis 70 and y-axis 72 aredisplayed on display screen 52, such that information unit icons 74 maybe arranged with respect to both axes using, for example, pointer 56 anda pointing device. In the embodiment of FIG. 3c, information unit iconsrepresenting information regarding status of applications (i.e.,application programs executable on a computer system or network) arearranged vertically along y-axis 72. The ordering of these iconsrepresenting application status information could be determined by, forexample, importance of each application on a given system or network.Arranged horizontally adjacent each of the application statusinformation unit icons are information unit icons representing diskspace available, a transaction rate, and processor utilization by theapplication. As in the case of sequence 58 of FIG. 3b, a criteria forordering of the information unit icons along the x-axis could beimportance of the information unit corresponding to each icon to theapplication status represented by an icon in the same row. In theembodiment of FIG. 3c, therefore, the information units represented byicons within the same column are related as consisting of the same typeof information (e.g., an amount of available disk space or a transactionrate). The information units represented by icons within the same roware related by relevance to a particular application. Each row or columnof the icon configuration of FIG. 3c may be considered as representing acontinuum arrangement of the corresponding information units. Use of aGUI as illustrated in FIG. 3c may therefore allow multiple continuumarrangements of information units to be formed efficiently andintuitively by an organizer of the information.

Use of a GUI to form a three-dimensional sequence of information uniticons is illustrated in FIGS. 3d-3 f. In this embodiment, a z-axis 76 isdisplayed with x-axis 70 and y-axis 72, as shown in FIG. 3d. Informationunit icons 78 may be displayed as three-dimensional shapes. Althoughrectangular one-dimensional and two-dimensional icons are used in FIG.3, the icons may have any shape allowing them to be arranged into one ormore sequences. In addition to entry button 60, rotation button 80 isdisplayed on display screen 52 in the embodiment of FIG. 3d. Anillustration of the display screen after some of icons 78 are moved intoan arrangement near the set of axes is shown in FIG. 3e. In order tomore easily move icons into positions not in the x-y plane, the set ofaxes and the associated information unit icons may be rotated usingrotation button 80. FIG. 3f shows the display screen after rotation ofthe axes and placement of the remaining information unit icons.Resulting three-dimensional arrangement 82 of information unit icons 78may be entered into the computer system by, for example, actuating entrybutton 60 using a pointing device. For this and all other embodimentsdescribed herein of the method of using a GUI to configure information,operation of the GUI (e.g., movement of icons or communication ofsequences to the computer system) may also be possible without using apointing device. For example, keyboard key sequences may be used insteadof a pointing device in some cases. Other methods of manipulating theGUI may also be used rather than those shown. For example, rotation ofthe set of axes may involve using the pointing device to select one ofthe axes and “drag” the set of axes and associated information unitsinto a new orientation. As another example, an axis could be selected toallow ordering of information unit icons with respect to only that axis.Sequential selection of one axis at a time (or possibly a pair of axesin a particular plane) and arrangement of information unit icons withrespect to each axis may allow formation of three-dimensionalconfigurations without the need for rotation of a set of axes. In suchan embodiment, a three-dimensional configuration may be formed bycombining multiple one- or two-dimensional sequences entered using theGUI.

Formation of continuum arrangements of information units by using a GUIas shown in FIG. 3 or by other methods, such as entering a policy into arules database or entering continuum labels into a data structure,allows the information to be displayed so that desired information unitsmay be easily accessed. An embodiment of a method of displayinginformation is illustrated in FIG. 4. In the embodiment of FIG. 4,navigation tool 84 is displayed on a portion of display screen 52.Navigation tool 84 includes x-axis 86, y-axis 88 and z-axis 90, forminga set of three axes. The axes preferably form a rectangular coordinatesystem. Selectable regions such as selectable region 92 (delineatedusing dashed lines) are configured in the vicinity of the set of axes.In the embodiment of FIG. 4, the selectable regions are typically notvisible unless currently or previously selected by a viewer of theinformation. In other embodiments, a small icon may be displayed at theposition of each selectable region, although such icons may make thenavigation tool appear cluttered and be more difficult to read andnavigate. Each selectable region corresponds to an information unitaccessible by the computer system, and selection of a selectable region(typically by using a pointing device) causes the correspondinginformation unit to be displayed on a portion of display screen 52 notused for display of navigation tool 84. In the embodiment of FIG. 4, forexample, the displayed information unit 85 contains informationregarding sales offices.

The position of each selectable region relative to the axes isdetermined by a set of coordinates associated with the information unitcorresponding to the selectable region. For the rectangular coordinatesystem of navigation tool 84 in FIG. 4, for example, the position of aselectable region is determined by an x-coordinate, a y-coordinate and az-coordinate. The x-coordinate is proportional to the value of an x-axiscontinuum attribute of the information unit corresponding to theselectable region, and the y-coordinate and z-coordinate are similarlyproportional to values of y-axis and z-axis continuum attributes.Examples of such x-axis, y-axis and z-axis continuum attributes aregiven in FIG. 2b. In some embodiments of a method of displayinginformation using navigation tool 84, each information unit has a singleunique set of coordinates, and therefore corresponds to only one of theselectable regions configured within navigation tool 84. Alternatively,an information unit may be assigned more than one set of coordinates insome embodiments, and correspond to more than one selectable region.

Navigation tool 84 may be used to display any collection of informationincluding information units to which coordinates may be assigned. Forexample, the information units corresponding to the selectable regionsin navigation tool 84 may be web pages, and the collection ofinformation a web site comprising the pages. The organizer of the webpage could, for example, select a group of pages thought to be mostcentral to the site and assign continuum labels to these pages to givethem coordinates along x-axis 86 in navigation. tool 84. Other pages maybe assigned continuum labels to give them coordinates displacing theircorresponding selectable regions from the x-axis by various amounts inthe y and/or z directions. In the embodiment of FIG. 4, the criterionfor ordering along the y-direction is the level of detail of theinformation unit. A possible criterion for ordering along thez-direction may be relatedness of an information unit to a referenceinformation unit, as may be implemented using the data of FIG. 2b.

In some embodiments, a single reference information unit may be used inall continuum arrangements within the information collection which areformed with respect to a reference information unit. Such a referenceinformation unit may be assigned continuum labels such that itscorresponding selectable region appears, for example, at the origin ofthe set of axes in navigation tool 84. In other embodiments, a differentreference information unit may be used in forming each continuumarrangement, where a continuum arrangement includes a one-dimensionalsequence of information units. For example, a reference information unitassociated with the information unit corresponding to user startingpoint icon 102 of FIG. 4 could correspond to a selectable region alongx-axis 86, having the same x-axis continuum value as the informationunit corresponding to icon 102. In other words, the selectable regioncorresponding to the reference information unit associated with icon 102could be at the position of the projection of icon 102 onto x-axis 86.Information units corresponding to other selectable regions along x-axis86 could similarly be reference information units for other continuumarrangements.

In some embodiments, a visible indicator such as visible indicator 94may be displayed when pointer 56 is positioned over a selectable region.In the embodiment of FIG. 4, visible indicator 94 is a text boxcontaining a description of the criteria by which selectable regions areordered in a direction parallel to the y-axis. This criterion is thelevel of detail of the subject matter of the information unitcorresponding to each selectable region, and visible indicator 94 isdisplayed when pointer 56 is positioned over y-axis 88. Similarindicators may be used to describe the criteria by which selectableregions are ordered along the other axes, and may also be used todescribe the subject matter of an information unit corresponding to aselectable region. The display of a visible indicator giving informationabout a feature, such as an axis or selectable region, underlying apointer may function in a similar manner to a “mouseover” in theJavaScript language, and may in some embodiments be implemented in thisform. The use of visible indicators such as indicator 94 may allow aviewer of a collection of information to quickly “browse” through theinformation and grasp the way in which the collection is organizedsimply by using a pointing device to move pointer 56 around navigationtool 84, and observing the visible indicators corresponding toselectable regions and axes traversed by the pointer.

When an information unit is displayed by selection of a selectableregion, a current position icon, icon 96 in FIG. 4, may be displayedover the selectable region corresponding to the displayed informationunit. In this way, a position of the displayed information unit withinthe organization of the entire collection of information may be readilyobserved. In some embodiments, a path indication such as path indication98 of FIG. 4 may be displayed to mark the path taken by a viewer betweenthe selectable region corresponding to the currently-displayedinformation unit and previously-selected selectable regions. Thepreviously-selected regions may be marked with an interim point icon,such as icons 100 in FIG. 4, and the region selected first by a viewermay be marked by a user starting point icon such as icon 102. In someembodiments, an intended starting point icon, such as icon 104 of FIG.4, may be displayed to mark an information unit intended by theorganizer of the collection of information to be the starting point fornavigating through the collection of information. Starting point icon104 is at the origin of the set of axes in the embodiment of FIG. 4, butcould be at the position of any selectable region corresponding to aninformation unit intended as the starting point.

A rotation button 106 may also be included in navigation tool 84.Similar to rotation button 80 in FIG. 3, rotation button 106 may beactuated by a viewer to rotate the set of axes and selectable regions sothat a particular region may be more conveniently selected. As in thecase of the GUI of FIG. 3, the GUI used to implement navigation tool 84may be interacted with in other ways than shown in FIG. 4. For example,rotation may be performed by direct manipulation of one or more axesrather than with a rotation button, or selection of selectable regionsmay be done without using a pointing device (for example, by usingkeyboard or keypad key sequences instead). As another example, an axis,or possibly a pair of axes in a particular plane, could be selectedinstead of rotating the set of three axes. In such an embodiment, thisselection may cause a new navigation tool to be displayed which containsonly the selected axis or axes and the selectable regions located alongthe axis or in the plane of the pair of axes. In this way, specificinformation units within a three-dimensional configuration may bedisplayable without a need to rotate the three-dimensional navigationtool.

In some embodiments, an outline of a cube may be displayed with the axesof navigation tool 84, such that the selectable regions corresponding tothe information units in the displayed information collection are withinthe cube. In such an embodiment navigation tool 84 may be referred to asa navigation cube. Any other shape could alternatively be displayed,such as a non-cubic rectangular box or a sphere. In some embodiments,selectable units could be configured about the axes using coordinatesfrom other than rectangular coordinate systems. For example, a sphericalcoordinate system could be used, in which coordinates were based onvalues of radial, azimuthal, and elevational continuum attributesassigned to information units.

Depending on the size of the information unit corresponding to aselected region of navigation tool 84, either all or part of theinformation unit is displayed on the display screen along withnavigation tool 84. Particularly if the information unit is relativelylarge (e.g. an entire web page) and the display screen is relativelysmall (e.g., a telephone or PDA screen), only a portion, or sub-unit, ofthe information unit may be displayed at one time. Determination of theorder in which portions are displayed is preferably implemented usinguser-established display preferences as described in related application“Establishment of Information Display Policy for Diverse DisplayDevices” by MacPhail. Such setting of display preferences may also beused to configure other display features such as the position on displayscreen 52 occupied by navigation tool 84, and which portions of thedisplay screen not occupied by the navigation tool are used for displayof the selected information unit.

Turning now to FIG. 5, a flow diagram illustrating a method ofconfiguring information units for display, or setting policy for displayof the information units, is shown. If the information to be displayedis static information (“no” branch of decision box 108), then acontinuum arrangement of the existing information units may be formed(box 110). The continuum arrangement may be formed by assigning acontinuum label to each information unit to be included within thecontinuum, as described above with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3. Thecontinuum arrangement is then stored, typically in one or more datastructures, which may have contents similar. to the examples shown inFIG. 2. More continuum arrangements may be formed (“yes” branch ofdecision box 114) by assigning additional continuum labels to theinformation units. If, for example, a three-dimensional configuration ofinformation units is desired, as would be appropriate for use of athree-dimensional navigation tool as illustrated in FIG. 4, at leastthree continuum arrangements are needed. Specifically, each informationunit in a three-dimensional configuration has three continuumattributes, the values of which are reflected in coordinates used toallow display of the information unit from the three-dimensionalnavigation tool.

If the information to be displayed is ad hoc information (“yes” branchof decision box 108), a policy is established to form a continuumarrangement of information units which may be created at a timesubsequent to establishment of the policy. Formation of the continuumarrangement preferably includes assignment of continuum labels to theinformation units; establishing the policy therefore preferably includesestablishing rules for assignment of the continuum labels. The policymay be established by methods including entering such rules into a rulesdatabase. In applications for which each of the information units may berepresented by an icon although the specific information unit may notyet exist, the policy may also be established using a GUI as describedabove with reference to FIG. 3. The policy is stored (box 118),typically in a rules database although possibly in other types of datastructure. If further continuum arrangements are desired (“yes” branchof decision box 120), policy for formation of additional continuumarrangements, typically by assigning further continuum labels to theinformation units, is established.

Whether static or ad hoc information is being configured, at least aportion of one or more of the established continuum arrangements may beforwarded to a display controller such as display controller 24 of FIG.1. The information forwarded to the display controller may be in theform of a markup language document, such as an Extended Markup Language(XML) document. In such an embodiment, the continuum labels may be usedas tags in the markup language document. The forwarding may be performedin some embodiments by a control program such as program 18 of FIG. 1,typically in response to an instruction for display detected by thecontrol program. The control program may create or collect the neededinformation unit or units in the case of ad hoc information display.Performing the method of FIG. 5 may involve use of a configuration or“setup” routine associated with, e.g., an application program oroperating system.

Methods of configuring information using a GUI are illustrated in theflow diagrams of FIG. 6. In the method of FIG. 6a, entry of one or moresequences of information unit icons is received. The method of FIG. 6amay be performed by a display controller and/or processor within thedevice on which the information is being displayed (e.g., a computer,telephone, PDA, etc.). Alternatively or in addition, this method may beperformed by a separate computer system on which information units andcontinuum arrangements of the information units are stored. If aone-dimensional sequence is to be entered into the computer system forformation of a single continuum arrangement (“yes” branch of decisionbox 124), a single axis is displayed on the display screen of thedisplay device (box 126), and information unit icons corresponding tothe information units to be ordered within a continuum arrangement areconfigured upon the display screen (box 128). Entry by a user of thecomputer system (an organizer of the information) of a sequence of theinformation unit icons is subsequently received (box 130). Continuumlabels are assigned to the corresponding information units, or policyestablished for assignment of the continuum labels (in the case of adhoc information), such that the information units are ordered within acontinuum arrangement according to the sequence of information uniticons entered by the user (box 132). As noted above in the discussion ofFIG. 3, the axis may be omitted in some embodiments of forming aone-dimensional sequence of information unit icons.

If a two-dimensional sequence of information unit icons is to be enteredinto the computer system (“yes” branch of decision box 136), a set oftwo axes is configured on the display screen (box 138) along with theinformation unit icons to be sequenced (box 140). A two-dimensionalsequence of information unit icons is received (box 142), and continuumarrangements of the corresponding information units are formed, orpolicy for formation of the continuum arrangements is established (box144). In the case for which entry of a three-dimensional sequence ofinformation units is desired (“no” branch of decision box 136), a set ofthree axes is configured on the screen (box 146) with the informationunit icons to be sequenced (box 148). In the embodiment of FIG. 6a, aninstruction to rotate the set of axes, along with any information uniticons placed in the proximity of the axes, may be received (“yes” branchof decision box 150), in which case the axes and icons are rotated (box152). The axes and icons are rotated in such a way that the relativepositions of the already-placed icons with respect to the axes and eachother are maintained. Entry of a three-dimensional sequence ofinformation unit icons is received (box 154), and continuum arrangementsof the corresponding information units are formed, or policy set forformation of these continuum arrangements (box 156). The ordering ofinformation units within the continuum arrangements so formedcorresponds to that of the entered information unit icon sequence. Anycontinuum arrangements or policies are stored, typically in one or moredata structures or rules databases (box 134). It is noted that adjacentdisplay steps in the embodiment of FIG. 6a (e.g. 126 and 128, or 146 and148) may be performed in the opposite order, or simultaneously. Suchdisplay steps may occur rapidly enough to appear simultaneous to a userno matter which step order is used.

The flow diagram of FIG. 6b illustrates a method of using a GUI todirect formation of continuum arrangements of information units. Themethod of FIG. 6b may be performed by an organizer of the information tobe displayed. Upon observing one or more axes and a group of informationunit icons displayed on a display screen (box 158), a user of the GUImoves the information unit icons to desired positions with respect tothe axis or axes and each other, so that a desired sequence of the iconsis obtained (box 160). The information unit icons may be moved by usinga pointing device to move a pointer configured on the screen, or byother methods such as keyboard or keypad key sequences. The sequence istransmitted to the computer system by which the information unitscorresponding to the information unit icons may be obtained (box 162).The transmission of the sequence to the computer system may be done byusing a pointing device to actuate an entry button configured on thedisplay screen, or by other techniques such as performing a keyboard orkeypad key sequence.

Turning now to FIG. 7, a flow diagram for a method of displaying acollection of information is shown. The method of FIG. 7 may beperformed by a display controller and/or processor of the devicedisplaying the information, and/or by a display controller and/orprocessor of a computer system which accesses the information beingdisplayed. For example, display of a navigation tool such as navigationtool 84 of FIG. 4 may be done by the-processor and display controller ofthe display device, while information units to be displayed are sent tothe display device by the display controller of the computer system. Aset of axes, preferably a set of three axes forming a rectangularcoordinate system, is configured (or displayed) on the display screen ofthe display device (box 164). Selectable regions are configured onand/or around the axes, where each selectable region corresponds to aninformation unit which may be displayed (box 166). As noted above in thediscussion of FIG. 4, icons may be positioned over the selectableregions in some embodiments, and an outline of a cube or other shape maybe displayed such that the selectable regions are within the shape. Asanother possibility, a visible outline of each selectable region couldbe displayed in. some embodiments. In the embodiment of FIG. 7, anintended starting point icon, similar to icon 104 in FIG. 4, isdisplayed at the position of the selectable region corresponding to theinformation unit intended by the organizer of the information collectionto be the starting point for navigating the information (box 168).

After selection of a selectable region is received (box 170), thecorresponding information unit is displayed on the display screen, whilecontinuing display of the navigation tool including the axes andselectable regions (box 172). Display of the corresponding informationunit typically includes sending of the information unit from thecomputer system to the display device, unless the information unit hasbeen previously stored in the display device (e.g., in a buffer). Acurrent position icon, such as icon 96 of FIG. 4, may be displayed atthe position of the selectable unit corresponding to the displayedinformation unit (box 174). When selection of another selectable regionis received (box 176), the current position icon is removed from theposition of the previously selected region, and displayed at theposition of the newly selected region (box 178). If the previouslyselected region was the first selectable region selected (“yes” branchof decision box 180), a user starting point icon similar to icon 102 ofFIG. 4 may be displayed at the position of the previously selectedregion (box 182). Otherwise, an interim point icon, such as icon 100 ofFIG. 4, may be displayed at the position of the previously selectedregion (box 184). The information unit corresponding to the previouslyselected region is removed from the display screen, and thatcorresponding to the newly selected region is displayed instead, alongwith the navigation cube (box 186). In the embodiment of FIG. 7, a pathindication, such as a line or dashed line, extending from the previouslyselected region to the currently selected region of the navigation toolis displayed (box 188). For each additional selection of a selectableregion within the navigation tool, steps 176 through 188 may berepeated.

The method of FIG. 7 is merely an exemplary embodiment, and manyvariations are possible. For example, some of the steps in FIG. 7,including steps 168, 182, 184 and 188, may not be performed in someembodiments of the method. Many of the adjacent display steps in FIG. 7may be performed in a different order, or performed simultaneously. Forexample, the order of steps 178, 182/184, 186 and 188 could be changed,or some or all of these steps could be performed simultaneously. Asnoted above in the description of FIG. 6a, the speed of implementationof the display steps may make adjacent steps appear simultaneous to aviewer regardless of their order.

Program instructions implementing methods such as those described abovemay be transmitted over or stored on a carrier medium. The carriermedium may be a transmission medium such as a wire, cable, or wirelesstransmission link, or a signal traveling along such a wire, cable orlink. Transmission medium 30 of FIG. 1 is an example of such atransmission medium. The carrier medium may also be a storage medium,such as a read-only memory, a random access memory, a magnetic oroptical disk, or a magnetic tape, similar to storage medium 14 of FIG.1. One or more data structures and/or rules databases may similarly betransmitted over or stored upon such a carrier medium.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art having the benefit ofthis disclosure that this invention is believed to provide methods forconfiguring information units stored in a computer system for display ona display device having arbitrary size. Furthermore, it is also to beunderstood that the form of the invention shown and described is to betaken as exemplary, presently preferred embodiments. Variousmodifications and changes may be made without departing from the spiritand scope of the invention as set forth in the claims. For example,relative orientation of the x-, y- and z-axes of FIGS. 3 and 4 could bechanged, and other criteria than those recited herein may be used toorganize information along any of these axes. Furthermore, the systemand methods described herein may be implemented using many combinationsof hardware and/or software, and at one or more of many different levelsof hardware and/or software, as is the case with many computer-basedapplications. It is intended that the following claims be interpreted toembrace all such modifications and changes.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of configuring information, comprisingassigning labels including an x-axis continuum label, a y-axis continuumlabel, and a z-axis continuum label to each of multiple informationunits accessible by a computer system, wherein a value of an attribute,corresponding to the z-axis continuum label indicates a level ofrelatedness of a corresponding.
 2. The method as recited in claim 1,wherein a value of an attribute corresponding to the x-axis continuumlabel indicates a position of a corresponding information unit within asequence of closely-related information units.
 3. The method as recitedin claim 1, wherein a value of an attribute corresponding to the y-axiscontinuum label indicates a level of detail of a subject matter of acorresponding information unit.
 4. The method as recited in claim 1,wherein the reference unit is within a sequence of closely-relatedinformation units, and wherein the sequence is established to be ofparticular importance within the information.
 5. The method as recitedin claim 4, wherein the sequence is established to be of particularimportance by an organizer of the information.
 6. The method as recitedin claims 5, wherein the sequence is established to be of particularimportance using input from a viewer of the information.
 7. The methodas recited in claim 1, wherein said assigning labels comprises setting apolicy for assignment of a label to each of the multiple informationunits, wherein the policy is adapted for at least one of the multipleinformation units to be created after said setting a policy.
 8. Themethod as recited in claim 7, wherein said setting a policy comprisesentering rules into a rules database, wherein said rules characterizecollection of the at least one of the multiple information units inresponse to an instruction for display of the at least one informationunit, and wherein said rules are adapted for the instruction for displayto occur after said entering rules.
 9. The method as recited in claim 1,wherein said assigning labels comprises describing an attribute of aninformation unit and a value of the attribute.
 10. The method as recitedin claim 9, or wherein: the x-axis continuum label describes a sequenceattribute and a value of the sequence attribute for the correspondinginformation unit; the y-axis continuum label describes a specificityattribute and a value of the specificity attribute for the correspondinginformation unit; and the z-axis label describes a relatedness attributeand a value of the relatedness attribute for the correspondinginformation unit with respect to a reference information unit.
 11. Themethod as recited in claim 10, wherein: the reference unit is within asequence of closely-related information units; the sequence isestablished to be of particular importance within the information; andthe reference information unit is associated with values of the sequenceattribute and specificity attribute which are identical to thoseassociated with the corresponding information unit.
 12. The method asrecited in claim 11, wherein each of the multiple information units isassociated with a unique combination of values of the sequenceattribute, specificity attribute, and relatedness attribute.
 13. Amethod of displaying information using a graphical user interface,comprising: configuring a set of three axes on a display screenassociated with a computer system; and configuring multiple selectableregions on the display screen in the vicinity of the axes, wherein eachof the selectable regions corresponds to an information unit accessibleby the computer system, wherein the graphical user interface is adaptedfor selection of one of the selectable regions to cause a correspondinginformation unit to be displayed on the display screen, and wherein aposition of each of the selectable regions with respect to the threeaxes is determined by a set of coordinates assigned to the correspondinginformation unit.
 14. The method as recited in claim 13 wherein saidconfiguring a set of three axes comprises configuring an x-axis, y-axis,and z-axis.
 15. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein saidconfiguring a set of three axes comprises configuring a rectangularcoordinate system.
 16. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein saidselection of a selectable region comprises: manipulation of a pointingdevice to align a pointer configured on the display screen over theselectable region; and actuation of a selection actuator associated withthe pointing device.
 17. The method as recited in claim 14, wherein theset of coordinates assigned to the corresponding information unitcomprises numbers proportional to values of an x-axis attribute, ay-axis attribute, and a z-axis attribute.
 18. The method as recited inclaim 13, further comprising displaying one of the information unitsaccessible using the computer system on the display screen in responseto selection of a corresponding selectable region, wherein saidconfiguring of the axes and selectable regions is maintained on aportion of the display screen during said displaying one of theinformation units.
 19. The method as recited in claim 18, furthercomprising displaying a current position icon at the position of thecorresponding selectable region to indicate a location, with respect tothe axes, of the displayed information unit.
 20. The method as recitedin claim 13, further comprising displaying a visible indicator when apointer configured on the display screen is aligned over a selectableregion, wherein said visible indicator characterizes the correspondinginformation unit.
 21. The method as recited in claim 17, furthercomprising displaying a visible indicator when a pointer configured onthe display screen is aligned over the x-axis, y-axis or z-axis, whereinthe visible indicator characterizes the x-axis attribute, y-axisattribute or z-axis attribute, respectively.
 22. The method as recitedin claim 13 wherein each of the information units accessible by acomputer system corresponds to a single selectable region.
 23. Acomputer-usable carrier medium, comprising program instructions drawnfrom the carrier medium comprising a storage medium and executable on acomputer system for receiving entry of an x-axis continuum label, ay-axis continuum label and a z-axis and continuum label for assignmentto each of multiple information units accessible by the computer system;and wherein a value of an attribute corresponding to the z-axiscontinuum label indicates a level of relatedness of a correspondinginformation unit to a reference information unit.
 24. A computer-usablecarrier medium, comprising: first program instructions executable on acomputer system for configuring a set of three axes on a display screenassociated with the computer system; and second program instructionsexecutable on a computer system for configuring multiple selectableregions on the display screen in the vicinity of the axes, wherein eachof the selectable regions corresponds to an information unit accessibleby the computer system, wherein the second program instructions areadapted for selection of one of the selectable regions to cause acorresponding information unit to be displayed on the display screen,and wherein a position of each of the selectable regions with respect tothe three axes is determined by a set of coordinates assigned to thecorresponding information unit.
 25. The carrier medium as recited inclaim 24, further comprising third program instructions executable onthe computer system for displaying one of the information unitsaccessible using the computer system on the display screen in responseto selection of a corresponding selectable region, wherein saidconfiguring of the axes and selectable regions is maintained on aportion of the display screen during said displaying one of theinformation units.
 26. The carrier medium as recited in claim 25,further comprising fourth program instructions executable on thecomputer system for displaying a current position icon at the positionof the corresponding selectable region to indicate a location, withrespect to the axes, of the displayed information unit.
 27. The carriermedium as recited in claim 24, further comprising third programinstructions executable on the computer system for displaying a visualindicator when a pointer configured on the display screen is alignedover a selectable region, wherein said visual indicator characterizesthe corresponding information unit.
 28. A computer-usable carriermedium, comprising a data structure which relates information unitsaccessible by a computer system to an x-axis continuum label, a y-axiscontinuum label and a z-axis continuum label.
 29. Aninformation-handling system, comprising: a display screen adapted forcommunication with a computer system; a means for configuring a set ofthree axes on the display screen; a means for configuring multipleselectable regions on the display screen in the vicinity of the axes,wherein each of the selectable regions corresponds to an informationunit accessible by the computer system, and wherein a position of eachof the selectable regions with respect to the three axes is determinedby a set of coordinates assigned to the corresponding information unit;and a means for causing the corresponding information unit to bedisplayed on the display screen in response to selection of one of theselectable regions.
 30. The system as recited in claim 29, wherein saidmeans for configuring multiple selectable regions comprises a displaycontroller within the computer system, and wherein the displaycontroller is adapted to receive the set of coordinates assigned to aninformation unit.
 31. The system as recited in claim 30, furthercomprising a storage medium operably coupled to the display controller,wherein the storage medium is adapted for storage of values of an x-axisattribute, a y-axis attribute and a z-axis attribute for each of themultiple information units, and wherein the set of coordinates comprisesnumbers proportional to the values of the x-axis, y-axis and z-axisattributes.
 32. The system as recited in claim 29, further comprising ameans for displaying a current position icon at the position of aselectable region corresponding to a displayed information unit, toindicate a location with respect to the axes of the displayedinformation unit.
 33. The system as recited in claim 29 furthercomprising a means for displaying a visible indicator on the displayscreen when a pointer configured on the display screen is aligned over aselectable region, wherein the visible indicator characterizes thecorresponding information unit.